Un.Bridled (Claimed Series #2) (13 page)

“I don’t know why he never talked to you. I think he was afraid of hurting your feelings.” Hayden silently cursed Asher for leaving her in this situation. “He told me he wanted to find his own destination. He had dreams of leaving Albertville and going to New York.”

“New York?” Eric exclaimed. “Is that where he went?”

Hayden shook her head. “He didn’t tell me where he was going, but if I had to guess, I would say New York is high on his list.” She watched as Eric pressed his palms into his eyes, too overwhelmed to care that he was showing weakness in public. “He mentioned leaving before. If I had known this time was for real, I would have tried to stop him.”
Or maybe have given him more support
.

Asher didn’t have someone like Cole to shed light on what he’d seen in the forest. The relationship he shared with his father didn’t seem intimate and Asher wouldn’t have wanted to appear weak in front of Eric.

Eric took a step back and then another. He lowered his hands from his face and gave Hayden a guarded nod. “Thank you.” Without another word, he turned and disappeared into the blanket of snow.

Suddenly exhausted, Hayden turned into the house. “I’m going to bed.” She smiled reassuringly at Addie, who sent her a questionable look. 

“Hayden.”

Pausing, Hayden turned and gave Cole her attention. The Alpha remained on the staircase, a few snowflakes plaguing his unruly locks. Nothing but cold regard lined his features. Though, if one looked hard enough, his eyes were warm as they appraised her.

“You made the right decision.”

Not knowing if he meant her decision to tell Eric about Asher
, or her decision to stay with the pack, Hayden simply nodded once. She escaped into the house, unable and unwilling to share Cole’s satisfaction.

“You aren’t training to be a skater,” Adolf commented with an impressive amount of scorn. “Pick your feet
up
. Stop dragging them as if you’re holding something fragile between your thighs.”

Hayden stepped away and exhaled levelly, trying to rein her temper. After an hour of strenuous conditioning, Adolf figured they’d spar. While he wielded a dagger, Hayden was given the task of defending herself unarmed.

“You’re flexible,” he continued, “use your body to your advantage. One does not shuffle and hobble around their opponent and expect to be seen as a threat. Did I not teach you how to kick or execute flips? Apply what you’ve learned, foolish girl.”

“I feel stupid doing handstands and backflips,” she mumbled sullenly.

Adolf’s eyebrows skyrocketed and his eyeballs protruded. “Do you know what looks
stupid
?” The tip of his dagger poked Hayden’s shoulder. “You. Shuffling. And waving your arms about. The only way you can defeat an enemy like that is if he’s doubled over with laughter.”

“I get it,” she snapped.

The silver-haired Alpha considered her. “Self-pity does not suit you.”

Hayden stepped away from the invading dagger and turned toward the woods to gather herself. In the clearing, there was no evidence of the fresh snow they received last night. Where Hayden and Adolf trained, the snow was packed down and soil was unearthed. Numerous cedar needles, which had fallen from their trees, encompassed the outskirts of the clearing, peppering the snow with bits of green and giving off a strong aroma of pine.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Hayden turned away from the surroundings and ensnared Adolf with a dubious stare.

“You’re dwelling too much over what happened with the Hunters and Eric’s boy.”

Disbelief washed through her. “How—”

“I spoke with Addie when you missed training yesterday and the day before.” Adolf lifted his dagger and began stroking the blade with the edge of his shirt, though it was already spotless. “Of course, she never spoke ill of you. She is only concerned. I was the one to deduce that you were simply drowning in self-pity.”

Unwilling to speak about this to
Adolf
of all people, Hayden focused on the one thing she could use as ammo. “Addie, huh?” she asked coyly. “You talk about her a lot. Small mentions here and there, but I can pick up your infatuation from a mile.”

The look Adolf sent her was pure loathing. He could deny it all he liked, but now that Hayden got a whiff of his affection for Cole’s grandmother, she couldn’t see it any other way. Adolf, the sour crab, was actually
smitten
with Addie.

Addie probably didn’t even realize it either. Hayden knew the Slayter men descended from a long line of powerful werewolves. Addie married into the Slayter family, maybe even crushing Adolf’s heart on the way there. It could explain why Adolf was always so rude to Cole and Xavier’s memory.

Hayden might be wrong, but she was allowed a fanatical imagination from time to time.

“The way I see it,”
Adolf breezed on, ignoring Hayden’s mocking. “You feel guilty because the boy couldn’t handle what transpired in the forest, but you could. Just because he’s stopped living, does not make it acceptable for you to remain stagnant as well.”

Hayden had dwelled over Asher for two full days. She still worried about him, but no longer to the point of feeling nauseated with guilt. “Cole lectured me already.” She took a step closer and got in her fighting stance. “I’m here now, aren’t I?”

He watched her defensive stance with an aura of boredom. “Your body is here. Your mind is not.” He sheathed his dagger and motioned to the wooden target and the set of throwing knives. “We’ll focus on something else today.”

Hayden popped up from her stance and bounced to the balls of her feet, her moodiness instantly vanishing. “You’re going to teach me that today?”

“Yes, I am going to teach you, as I am the only
capable
instructor in town.” Adolf glanced at his house. “However, I need to attend to a pack matter. Someone else will step in and show you the mere basics, as that is all he is capable of.”

About to ask whom he had in mind, Hayden noticed his eyes resting on a spot above her head. Glancing over her shoulder, Hayden grunted in surprise. When she fully comprehended who stood on the far side of the clearing, Hayden quickly whirled around to face him fully.

Cole was leaning against a tree and observing Hayden and Adolf with an air of indifference.

“You told him?” Hayden demanded angrily, leveling Adolf with a glare.

“I did not.” Adolf appeared unconcerned with her dilemma as he calmly gathered his things. “You’d be surprised at how fine-tuned an Alpha is with his pack. He knew before we started and he’s known since.”

Meaning, Cole had known all this time she’d been lying to him.

Hayden’s hackles rose in defense. “You agreed to teach me because Cole asked you, didn’t you?” When Adolf agreed to instruct her, Hayden felt pleased that she’d been able to convince him on her own. She enjoyed having something that Cole did not know about.

“Certainly not.”
The silver-haired Alpha brushed past her. “There was something
endearing
about your persistence and determination. I knew you would make a passable pupil.”

Her frustration abruptly quelled at the man’s admission. Basking in an air of self-satisfaction, Hayden watched him retreat back to his house. She then turned to Cole, wondering how he would react to her going behind his back and seeking out Adolf’s tutelage. His face was unreadable as he approached, an aura of stealth cloaking the sound of his footsteps.

“Well, would you look at that,” she remarked, offering a tight smirk as he stopped in front of her. “Adolf thinks my persistence and determination is endearing, whereas you would label it as being pigheaded and stubborn.”

There was something unfamiliar churning in Cole’s eyes. Before she could properly identify it, Cole grasped her chin and swooped down to press his lips against hers. His arm, a solid and unyielding band, curled around her waist and pressed her close.

Hayden’s head reeled at the unexpected kiss. His lips were hard and demanding, doing nothing particularly special besides taking her breath away. Solid muscle met Hayden’s inquisitive touch as she pressed her hands against his chest.

It was a quick, claiming kiss, but when Cole pulled back, he didn’t rear away as he normally would. Instead, his arm tightened around her waist, pressing her body flush against his. The tip of his nose traced tenderly across her face, his short stubble prickling against her skin. Gentle, yet possessive lips found her forehead, lightly kissing the crown of her head.

“I admire everything about you,” Cole murmured huskily. He laid his forehead against hers and stared down at her. “You have a poor interpretation of me and what I would
think
of you.”

She found that, in his arms, it was taking her longer than usual to formulate an adequate response. All this was sudden and unexpected; his actions had her head reeling. “You’re always reprimanding me. Of course I would assume you’d think poorly of me.”

“But you’re wrong.” His opposite hand splayed her throat before curling around it greedily. “You irritate the hell out of me, but I
enjoy
the challenge. There is nothing I would want to change about you if I could.” The hand tightened around her throat. “And no matter what Adolf likes to call it, it
is
pigheadedness.”

Her eyes closed as he put a firm, but pleasurable pressure around her neck. Her mind told her to pull away. But there was something strangely erotic about being pressed against him and feeling the hard ridges of his muscle through their clothes.

What, exactly, was Cole playing at? Whenever he initiated any sort of physical contact with her, he usually retreated gloomily, like that of a guilty child being reprimanded for eating snacks before dinner. Only this time, his hold on her seemed permanent, confident.

She opened her eyes when she refocused on his words, catching something in his tone. “You mention that you wouldn’t change anything about me. Are we still talking about my endearing qualities, or my decision to learn how to fight?”

“Why did you decide to do it?”

Hayden’s intuition rang true. Cole
was
troubled over why she decided to learn how to fight. The revelation both tickled and confused her. He was finally opening up, but she wondered at his reasons for doing so now.

“For the most part, I wanted to learn to protect the pack and myself.” She gazed up at him, hating him for having such handsome features, but secretly pleased she was the only one allowed close enough to admire them. “I don’t want to rely on other people to protect me.”

“But there is another reason.” Unsurprisingly, he saw right through her.

She hesitated, wondering if he already knew what she’d say. It was most likely why he decided to confront her about it. “I didn’t want you to see me as defenseless. I didn’t want you to compare me to your mother.”

Cole’s eyebrows furrowed and his throat contracted, causing his Adam’s apple to bob. “Hayden…” Somehow, he was able to whisper her name and scold her at the same time. “I
never
saw you as my mother. Who you are as a person had nothing to do with my decision to remain unmated.”

Refraining from melting into a puddle of goo over a man was one of Hayden’s most cherished assets. However, there was something charismatic in the way Cole held her and uttered words she’d thought he’d never express aloud.

If possible, Cole pressed her closer and leaned his forehead more firmly against hers. He focused on her with such admiring intensity, Hayden wondered if he’d even notice Adolf charging at them for frolicking on his property. She was used to being the center of his attention, but not like
this.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better life mate.” A wary smirk lifted his previously stern mouth. “Though, one that doesn’t constantly give me ulcers would have been preferable.”

In an attempt to appear far more indifferent than she was, Hayden matched his smirk with one of her own and tried not to mull over his confession. “I keep you on your toes.”

Sometime between his confession and her disbelief, the hand around her waist began to grow bold. Fingers that were once still and firm were now inquisitive as they stroked and caressed Hayden’s side. Whatever humor Cole had possessed fell way to intense attentiveness as he regarded her. 

The flutter in her stomach stemmed from excitement, but also wariness.

“Hayden.”

He’d said her name countless of times before, but somehow, this time, it was heavy with imminent purpose to discuss issues she didn’t want to consider.

“It’s easy to forget we’re on Adolf’s property when he isn’t careering us away,” she remarked lightly, forcing herself to take note of their surroundings. “You
are
still planning to teach me knife throwing, aren’t you?”

Hayden thought she successfully dissipated the tension and the awkwardness, but as she made a move to pull away, Cole surprised her by forcibly tugging her back with aggressiveness he normally didn’t display towards her. With her heart in her throat, she was suddenly bombarded with the implications of a willing, eager Cole.

Mating with him had always been a whisper in the back of her mind, a sort of innocent, two-dimensional issue. Why consider it when Cole had always been unwilling to touch her or give her a simple kiss? She’d thought he would never take the next step; he never
wanted
to take the next step.

With Cole’s dominant and aggressive nature displayed, Hayden grew wary. He possessed none of Asher’s boyish, timid nature when it came to romanticizing. No. He knew what he wanted and he took it with easy confidence.

An unsettling question nagged at the back of her mind. He hadn’t changed his mind about mating, had he? And why did that prospect send an electrifying thrill across her stomach but a flutter of fear through her chest? 

Most likely sensing her unease, Cole released her with agonized slowness, as if to tell her he was in charge and he’d let go when it suited him. It was an Alpha mentality, one she needed to harness herself when dealing with Cole, least she become smothered by his dominance.

“Come.”

His eyes
were all knowing as they leveled her with one last look. He then turned his heel and led her toward the target. Hayden inhaled deeply, throwing her shoulders back and following with a confident swagger.

Through skeptical eyes, she watched as he picked up one of the throwing knives and took position a few meters away from the target. He made sure she was watching before demonstrating the proper form for knife throwing.

With a motion as easy as swatting a fly, or in this case, chopping an imaginary piece of wood with his hand, Cole sent the knife soaring through the air. The blade sunk into the center of the target with a resonating
thump
.

Hayden bit the inside of her cheek, exasperated and a bit jealous. “Is there anything you
can’t
do?” she asked him, trying to veil her annoyance.